We spent most of February and March building Valkyrie

we started with a MDF fit-up with as many existing components as we had on hand. Once that was done, we had a batch order of high strength steel sent out for our weapon and armor. We did a fair amount of our own waterjet parts in aluminum and titanium (thank you Yarde Metals, eBay and pray, and Metal Supermarkets). For any machining, we were lucky enough to get most of our orders in before Chinese New Year and before other competitors flooded some common companies’ order queue. Robot shipped March 22, 2017—- we started building on January 30th.

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April was filming for Battlebots on Discovery and Science Channel:

We had so many fights.

Valkyrie v Ultimo Destructo (L)

Valkyrie v Predator v Bale Spear (W)

Valkyrie v Hypothermia (W)

Valkyrie v Lock Jaw (L)

Valkyrie v Red Devil (W)

Valkyrie v Lucky v Bombshell v Duck! v Red Devil v Gigabyte (L)

Valkyrie v Overhaul (W)

First fight we learned a lot about our weapon and clutch system. Our fight against Lock Jaw we learned about material strength being compromised with welding and heat treatment. Our last loss was versus five seasoned veterans of Battlebots and we almost made it. Top 16 next season? Here’s hoping!

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May and June were robot-free for most of us. In July we were featured at the Markforged 5 Year Anniversary Party (they’re an amazing resource and sponsor for our team!) and we watched along on Discovery Channel as our season began to air.

July we made a toy…!

If Hexbug needs convincing to make a Valkyrie toy, we’re ready! Leanne’s intern convinced her to make a silly quick Makerbot print of Valkyrie and then Brooks and Alex had to one-up it utilizing their resources at Formlabs and Markforged.

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August we finally made our debut outside of the Desperado!

We ran a handful of events at a brewery near Valkyrie’s home, Aeronaut, in Somerville.

… and We Got Some Fans and Some Amazing Fan Art!

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September was More Robot Events

We had team members at DragonCon, World Maker Faire, Franklin Institute, and Boston Mini Maker Faire.

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November and December was reserved for Valkyrie V2 talks and Vacation

There’s whispers of Season 4 starting and we’re hoping we’ll be back! Next up before that, Leanne, Fred and Alex all have entries in various weight classes at Motorama in Harrisburg, PA in February!

Stay tuned and Happy 2019!

As mentioned before, our team has been busy the past few months designing and fabricating our new robot, Valkyrie. There's also a trailer that premiered a couple days ago! Stay tuned to @Discovery and @Battlebots on social media and keep an eye out for Valkyrie!

Leanne here-- I'm excited to say the team has been busy with a new heavyweight, Valkyrie. We will have a larger write-up once we are shipped out in a couple weeks! I'm not sure how much we'll be able to say/show until the summer but stay tuned!